Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

The 75-year-old is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigars and champagne from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assistance with personal and business interests.

Moreover, he is accused of promoting advantageous regulations for media moguls in exchange for favourable coverage of himself and his family. 

“It is a complete lie. From time to time I indulge in a cigar ... [but] I hate champagne,” Netanyahu claimed in response to questions about these accusations.

“I have waited eight years for this moment, to say the truth as I remember it, which is important for justice. But I am also a prime minister. I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel,” the Israeli prime minister said while speaking in Tel Aviv. 

Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant at the same time as he faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza.

The court has dispensed him the right to take urgent breaks and receive notes during proceedings, for he is the sitting prime minister and is running a war.

He claimed he did not care about favourable media coverage of him. “The reality is the exact opposite. I am not focused on my future but on the future of the state of Israel," he argued.

Furthermore, Netanyahu claimed that his family had faced “attacks, slander and lies on a scale that few public figures have likely experienced … it is doubtful there are any other similar cases in the world.”

He said the charges were not just absurd, but a disgrace.

Netanyahu's trial is taking place in an underground, fortified courtroom for security reasons. Dozens of protesters, both supporters and opponents, are gathered outside the courthouse.

A banner draped outside read “Crime Minister” as each side chanted slogans. Some families of the captives held in Gaza also demonstrated.